Corona Diaries
Open source audio stories from around the world
Background:
Corona Diaries was an early concept of an open source tool for journalists and citizens to share stories from the field. It was proposed as an idea to fight bias in media delivery. The site was supposed to be a ledger of pandemic stories, to reference and use openly, in historical and artistic ways.
Challenge:
The client thinks that they have just scratched the surface of what
this tool could be used for. They would like us to expand the website into a mobile app in order to expand the user base.
Objectives
-
Create a mobile app for the current Corona Diaries website
-
Implement new features for users
Scope:
Tools: Figma, Miro, Marvel
Role: UX Designer
Duration: 2 weeks
My Contributions:
-
Personas
-
Competitive/comparative analysis
-
Interviews
-
User testing
-
Wire-framing
"I want to be able to find people I can relate with"
"I don't feel comfortable posting anything online"
"I'm more comfortable listening than sharing online"
"I was pretty depressed during the start of Covid"
"I've felt isolated since Covid started"
What people are saying:
Once we understood the business needs of Corona Diaries, we started to dig deeper into the minds of users who may use a similar app.
-
Conducted 12 interviews
-
Centered questions around how people seek out information as well as their experiences with Covid
-
Focused on people who were largely affected by Covid
People have privacy concerns:
People are concerned about posting their information online and would prefer to be anonymous
People are afraid of being judged:
People are uncomfortable sharing their feelings/emotions online to strangers
People felt isolated during Covid
People often had feelings of depression/isolation/loneliness during Covid. They wish they could hear other people's experiences with Covid
Who is our typical user?
From our interviews, we were able to create a primary and secondary persona. This allowed us to design with our user's needs, frustrations, and goals in mind.
Once we figured out who our personas were going to be, we further defined the problem statements and solutions each persona would need
Anna: Primary User
Problem: Anna needs to find a tool that allows her to hear stories from people around the world in similar circumstances in order to feel a sense of community
Solution: Anna will be able to connect with people all over the world which will help cope with her isolation and encourage her to express herself (give her an outlet to express herself)
Anthony: Secondary User
Problem: Anthony wants a platform where he can find inspiration and connect with others in order to build relationships and meet his social needs safely
Solution: This platform will provide inspirational content for Anthony and also serve as a catalyst for community connection and healthy conversation around COVID.
Usability Testing on Current Site
We conducted 5 usability tests on the current Corona Diaries to see how users were able to navigate the website.
• Users enjoyed audio map component of website, but found it confusing initially
• Some users found certain audio un-relatable and left
• Did not know where to check audio
Delta/Gamma: Social media platforms + podcasts
In order to modernize Corona Diaries, we dug deep into leading social media platforms to see what worked and what didn't work. We created a plus/delta for over 10 different platforms.
Comparative Analysis
Although there are no direct competitors to Corona Diaries (due to it being such a unique platform), we explored similar platforms that had similar users. We explored the podcast and snapchat app and saw where Corona Diaries was lacking in comparison to its competitors.
Initial low-fidelity wireframes
Since some users were confused by the map concept, we incorporated a list view of audios to choose from.
​
The titles would allow users to choose an audio based off what they can relate to.
Since users enjoyed the map aspect of app, we made sure to include this as a feature as well. The map feature helped Corona Diaries stand out from other podcast apps.
Since our primary and secondary users both had issues with privacy, we incorporated a word-to-audio feature which would allow users to post without their voices being shared.
​
This also works as an accessibility option for people that cannot speak directly to the mic.
Since anonymity was a huge factor for people that wanted to share sensitive information, we steered away from traditional social profiles. Instead we created anonymous profiles that allowed users to simply save and record/post.
Usability Testing:
After creating our wireframes, we conducted a usability test through marvel. Our goals was to assess the logic of the user flows we conceptualized.
On sign in page, some users pressed "I'm a new user" instead of "sign up." At this point, "I'm a new user" was not a hotspot
Users pressed pause after recording to stop audio instead of pressing microphone.
Few users were confused what the audio map page was for.
